Here and There
Gov’t’s dubious ‘recovery’ of stolen wealth
By Gerry Garcia
WE’RE well past 2006, three years dating back to the “doubtful” 2004 presidential elections which had caused PGMA’s unabated bashing by the Opposition. She had, they say, cheated her way to the presidency and beaten the hapless but immensely popular screen hero FPJ. They have not given up yet up to now pummeling the President three years after FPJ have long been dead!
The long-playing GMA bashing, though, has not stirred people-power support enough to prevent the economy from perking up.
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In the meantime, the weeklong state of emergency over an alleged coup plot has stirred Administration’s suspicion of former President Erap’s involvement finance-wise. Erap has admitted giving a couple of millions to elite military units last year but only . . . . as Christmas gifts. Which two Visayan congressmen do not buy. Antonio Cuenco of Cebu and Eduardo Veloso of Leyte said Erap was “overly generous” not to mention the timing — since regenade soldiers were then allegedly planning to launch a coup against the administration.
It’s our guess that it is the Administration’s being “overly neglectful” of its job to end Erap’s multi-million plunder suit in due time. The Administration’s endless probe into the Erap’s huge loot had been nothing but a dilly-dallying princely treatment of a former head of the state which has resulted in his frequent but secret involvement in past coup moves against the government. It was simply a case of “weak presidency” against a “strong but vain” plunder suspect.
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By the way to a public grown wise to the proneness of most government trapos to line their pockets with stolen public money, government drives to confiscate or sequester stolen wealth appear dubious.
The PCGG, for instance, which was formed by former President Cory in 1986 to look into and confiscate Marcos’ stolen billions, has been on the job for already more than 20 years . . . and the late dictator, who has long been dead, still has many more millions stashed in banks. What about the other untold millions already sequestered? Have they reached their intended beneficiaries . . . or lined the pockets of some agents of sequestration?
Business tycoon Lucio Tan is a lucky Fil-Sino who has cut loose from the noose of PCGG through a Sandiganbayan decision issued last Wednesday.
The Court has ordered the government to give up control and management of Lucio’s four babies: Allied Banking Corp., Fortune Tobacco Corp.; Foremost Farms, and Shareholdings Inc.
The Fil-Chinese mestizo, who denies being a Marcos crony, also intends to hit back at the PCGG, especially aging ex-Commissioner Jovito Salonga who is still alive and kidding. The other commissioner who signed the sequestration orders, Ramon Diaz, has long been buried.
Still some of the doubting public have not stopped speculating Tan’s money has something to do with the mestizo’s getting back his four firms.
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